Combine headers of the type including a rotating reel for poising crops or plants and moving them up into the header are in widespread use. Row dividers are often employed with such headers for separating, dividing and guiding crops at the edge of a header swath. While row dividers are important for efficient harvesting of grains and like crops, they are even more important in the harvesting of vine crops, such as soybeans, in which the swath edges must be accurately separated and untangled. Failure to properly separate and untangle can result in either lost crop or end wrap on the reel, the latter of which must be cleared periodically from the reel while harverting, resulting in a loss of harvesting time and potential danger to the operator.
State of the art dividers designed for use on soybean harvesting combines typically have relatively long forward extensions of a generally conical shape forming a dividing point snout, and are pivoted at the point of attachment to the header frame. Dividers of this type, however, and more specifically for instance this type used in connection with John Deer 200.RTM. Series combines, have been found generally ineffectual in guarding against end wrap, not withstanding their "high rise" design. Soybean crop routinely works in behind the open end of the divider shroud and wraps on the end of the reel. It has been found, however, that extending the divider further rearward causes it to interfere with the reel, and that extending the divider inward toward the center of the reel requires substantial reinforcement of the shroud to prevent deformation, both of which potential solutions are therefore undesireable.